Is Britain REALLY democratic? 

Have a look at how New Zealand went from First Past The Post to proportional representation twenty years ago. We have had stable governments since with minor parties involved in coalition. The violent swings in policy have lessened and people know that their party vote will determine the shape of parliament.

I had no idea there was a referendum on "First past the post". Anyone else?

The UK is very undemocratic. You get to vote once every 5 years for a candidate you didn't choose, standing for policies you didn't choose and with the first past the post system, if you vote against the majority in your constituency, you vote is ignored completely. On a day to day basis you have no say at all. You go to work and your boss tells you what to do. Your creating the profit your boss enjoys but have no say in what is done with the profits you make.. You can vote for a local councillor but they have no individual power... In our town, a few years ago there was a deeply unpopular traffic warden, everyone complained but it made no difference. This was until he gave a parking ticket top the local duke. Suddenly he disappeared and we had no traffic warden for 3 years. Amazingly, the world didn't grind to a halt and the town got on perfectly well without one.. This is where the power lays...

"Isn't the problem that PR leads to unstable goverments " - As if we had worthy governments with the present system..

Priti Patel is enacting a bill later this week in which protests can be such down by police, if they consider the protest “noisy”, “disruptive” or “inconvenient”. That includes one-person protests. This is the death of any shred of British ‘democracy’ that we had left

An Ancient Greek philosopher once said ‘The people who make the best slaves are those who believe they live in a democracy’. We’re given just enough to keep us manageable.

As an American we don’t even have a democracy we have an oligarchy... You brits actually have a decent system! Love from 🇺🇸 I’d love to move there!

Fact we are not a 'democracy' has come out since EU issue started. It was always simmering on a back burner but now it's at boiling point. Common sense has never been a 'forte' of politicians as they mostly blow with the wind of the party, power or money.

The preferential system used for the Australian House of Representatives (preferential voting - you have to number every candidate in order of your preference ) could be most easily transferred to the Commons. Every electorates member must get at least 50%. A twist on this is the NSW legislative assembly where you don’t have to number every candidate

Britain needs a system of proportional representation, but it also needs to become a modern democratic republic with a formal written constitution.

22 years ago, 1 politician lost a safe seat. Wow 😂 We use ranked preference here and it's much more democratic than the UK in my opinion. There's practically no such thing as a safe seat.

We have 59 seats here in Scotland, England has over 500. What's the point voting when we never agree on anything and get things their way...

Proud Brit and I love the queen ❤️. I’m 13 and in my school most of my mates say they like the monarchy they just don’t care. Not that we want to get rid of it.

No way fair. The poor green party has upto 10% support of the public, but that translates to only a couple of seats.

All MPs love us. It doesn't matter who you vote for. They have all our interests at heart. xx

A good video. It points out the big problems with the British system. But I think it is important to mention that Democracy did not just mean "people have the power" it means that people legitimize the power. So as long as the majority is satisfied with their system and it is approved in a secret informed vote the system is democratic. So less direct control but a better informed society can be much more democratic. For this reason countries like Switzerland aren't automatically the most democratic when you ask experts. In most cases Norway and Sweden are ranking at the Top. (Switzerland has a problem with big money and the press)

5:15 You forgot to mention that the Alternative Vote method isn't proportional either. Simulations showed it would yield a less proportional House than FPTP! We had a referendum to pick between two bad voting systems.

It doesnt matter in a democracy the government is accountable to the people . Not in the Uk the government is accountable to the queen

this is really informative but oh god the constant movement of the camera is driving me insane

2 advantages of the additional member system over STV. 1. It maintains a clear link between you and your MP. 2. It isn't a preferential system, so if we have a referendum it cannot be legitimately claimed that we have already had a referendum on the matter. It does have 2 potential disadvantages though. 1. It could be less proportional, especially in places like Scotland. 2. It relies on party lists, making it hard to get rid of a disliked politician in a party that has some broad support.

6:46 - nice dart board

The irish Republic is a good example of how a democracy can be. A democratic Republic with proportional representation. no monarchy as head of law church or army . seperation of church and state no house of lords with hereditary titles. Neutrality and not member of NATO. local governments and national and European healthcare and education standardised including eurasmus etc. A President with cultural diplomatic role not like France. for any possible changes to Constitution by democratic referendums put to population

This is why it pisses me when I hear Brits claim at least they are a democracy !

As far as I can see, the UK is a great country with independent courts, and people get to vote, and they do have a chance to change something. Maybe the political system in general isn't perfect but still it's fairly democratic. I would love to live to the UK!

Total rubbish. I’ve lived in PR systems (Germany Holland Sweden) and those parliaments are never kicked out. The fear of a removal lorry outside number ten if a government gets kicked out means that that government failed to govern the country and has been thus ejected from number ten.

Of course not. We also need democracy in the workplace, but that idea is too extreme for Channel 4.

Anyone who thinks they live in a parliamentary Democracy in the UK is severely deluded.

"If voting made any difference it would be illegal" George Carlin

the only thing that is democratic in brittain is the bad weather.Everybody gets that.

How can it be a democracy when England has over 300 MPs Scotland has 59 wales has 20 and Northern Ireland has 10 In an equal hahaha joke equal United Kingdom that’s a tyranny not a democracy

Britain is a partial democracy. Creating a fully democratic system would be simple if the largest parties that benefit from the current system cared to change it, which will likely be never. 1 - Switch to a mixed member proportional voting system 2 - Either abolish the House of Lords or reform it into a fully elected body 3 - Abolish the monarchy 4 - Create a written constitution

whats with the shaky graphics at the back

You're comparing apples with oranges @ 1:56 ... SNP only field candidates in Scotland, (a COUNTRY with a total population of less than 5 million), they won 35 of 59 seats. What % of SCOTLAND'S seats & votes did they win! FibDems field 650 candidates, won 11 seats with 2.4 million votes UK wide. IF you're going to compare FibDems with the SNP ... How many seats & what % of votes did they win in Scotland! From the way you present this it seems you're implying a 'more democratic' system would see the COUNTRY of Scotland represented by HALF the number of seats in London ... Quickest way to Scottish independence if Westminster go that route 😉

"House of Commoners" "House of Lords" "House of Windsor/royals"

Cool video!

only two countries in the world have reserved seats in their parliament for ministers of their established religion, the UK and Iran. Only two countries in Europe have a ridiculous unrepresentative electoral first past the post system, the UK and Belarus. At least Belarus doesn't have a feudal monarch. Not sure if it has parliamentary seats for its priests, though.

In the U.K democracy was murdered as soon as the idea came about.It is the most undemocratic country i have lived in and i come from an ex communist republic.

I wish there was a Kernowek (Cornis) National Assembly. M’ath Kernow, Kernow bys vyken!

No of course it isnt. The top 10% owns 90% of everything. Its an oligarchy.

NOPE, waste of 13 minutes, we all know it it isn't so why do we waste air time lying?

we have a republic in America. They have a Monarchy that is the royal family allows to operate as a republic the queen can unilaterally override anything that the house of commons decides or remove a prime minister or declare a war.

A federal republic with proportional representation and assemblies for each nation as well as both the north and south of england and a fully independant judiciary would just about fix it. Plus the abolition of tax havens and the city of london, and use of internet based polls, petitions and referenda to participate directly in aspects of local government to increase engagement... literally none of this will ever happen though.

Will be good if can also cover UK's two party or multi-party system? In many countries, though they call themselves democratic, but really only have one big dominating party as government and few to none as their shadow

I assume this was recent footage. The test of our democracy is surely whether the establishment honours the result of the EU referendum. Considering all these other elections is rather irrelevant at the moment.

It is not correct to state that judges of the UK Supreme Court are appointed for life. Under the provisions of the Judicial Pensions and Retirement Act 1993, the individual terms of judges are proscribed by a statutory age limit of 70 years of age, unless they were appointed before 31 March 1995, when it is then 75 years of age. The process of appointment is also independent via the respective Judicial Appointments Commission (England and Wales as well as Northern Ireland) and Judicial Appointments Board (Scotland). Recommendations are made to the Prime Minister and approved by The Queen. It is the US Supreme Court where justices are appointed under political influence for life terms but they are able to retire from office.

Tories have no chance of winning Hemsworth. 2019 election would show different.

Just ask your Russian friends what would please them the most and do it. This is true patriotic democracy.

The word democracy comes from the ancient greeks and literally means what the US has as a slogan "by, of and for the people". As far as I know, there is NO national government on this planet where people make policy. Zero. The Landesgeitmende in switzerland is about the closest where townspeople meet once a year and vote on policy. But thats only local government, not regional and certainly not national. Personally I think there is little point in arguing with somebody who would actually state that the politicians of their country actually represent them. Maybe in scandinavia and parts of europe, but I doubt even there. Of course there are relative variations. If you have NO elections and a tyrant or monarch who simply dictates policy, thats the opposite of democracy and you can recognize changes along that curve where some practices bring you closer to a democracy. I think the problem today is we've stopped moving along that curve. The Magna Carta was a document meant to take power from a tyrant and distribute it to Earls and Barons and those in 'regional' areas who didnt like being told what to do. The evolution should continue further to the public, but certainly in british commonwealth countries that didn't occur and we're still waiting. Nation states are actually a fairly new thing, and right now they are not run democratically. Maybe in the future, but certainly not now.

Preferential voting in Australia also has problems with parties bickering over who supports who. Democratic systems are still better than any other.

The answer is to remove party politics from the electoral process.

PR may be fairer, but as history shows, it really does lead to more unstable, less accountable politics. Split the difference and adopt AV.

Democracy is in fact a real idea that actually does work when it is used. But we don't have a democracy at all in the UK. We never have had (not even close to having one). Voting for leaders is absolutely not a democracy, in fact the athenian backlash against elitist elections is what provoked the idea of democracy in the first place. Google Athens and sortition. Sortition is what was meant by democracy. Which is not what we have today. "It is accepted as democratic when public offices are allocated by lot" That is democracy. "and as oligarchic when they are filled by election" and that is what we have today. Oligarchy.

Well duh, the United States for example is a representative Democracy.

Who is the person hosting this show???

The British electoral system is undemocratic and unrepresentative, the first past the post system hails from an era long past when ordinary people first acquired a vote.....it needs badly to evolve. Democracy is about representation not competition, elections are not about winning or losing, minority groups need representation as much as the majority. In Britain significant minorities are at the very least under represented in Parliament, if Britain adopted a fairer P.R. system the crippled political landscape and current democratic stagnation evident in the U.K. would disappear. Coalition Governments representing both minority and majority groups are the norm in mature democracies across Europe, they are largely successful, indeed it is usually impossible for a single party to secure an overall majority in such parliaments. Lack of representation has led to the voices of minority groups not been heard and ignored by British Governments over many decades, this has bred frustration and apathy and helped bring Britain to it's present situation. Democracy needs to mature in Britain. I am an avid and neutral follower of UK politics from another European country.

Adopt proportional representation is also to transfer power from the citizens to the parties directories.

I think the title of this video is a little incomplete. The first past the post system is flawed, I agree. Funnily enough I thought it had changed, so I am obviously not too up to date!

Proportionate representation resullts in the minority ruling it over the majroity. I should know, in New Zealand we have a "Mixed Member Proportional" (MMP) system. Minority/fringe parties are the only ones who like MMP and in many cases they are the ones who get to decide who the government will be.

This is why you can tell people think parliament is a joke and we aren't democratic. We have parties like the monster party. We may have a say for the house of Commons but we don't have a say for the house of lords or who is queen. Therefore we aren't democratic. The house of lords and the queen are part of the parliament and so have a say. We only vote for a third of a parliament in essence. Which when you put it like that 2/3rd of the parliament which we don't vote for has a bigger say. It should just be one person and that's it but it doesn't work like that in Britain.

Well given the one time we have a vote where it is one person one vote, no safe seats or wasted votes etc that parliament think they are permitted to just ignore it...

A coalition WAS NOT formed in 2017. The Conservatives & DUP entered a confidence and supply agreement where DUP will support the government in key votes. Thus not sitting on the government benches or holding ministerial positions.... that’s is not what a coalition is.. as this video says

We are currently waiting for the Electoral Commission to redraw the boundaries and get rid of 50 M.P.s. This should go some ways to restoring democratic representation.

The workers democratic rights are directly determined by the capitalist levels of profit, the profit motive will always be the ruling factor.

It is sad to say, but without proportional representation we are not democratic. The first past the post system is not democratic.It is is not undemocratic, nor democratic.

You forgot to mention multi seat constituencies👍

Where there's complete licence to effectively lie Your way into power with dishonest pledges completely free of accountability what does that tell You?

What UK coaltion happpened in 2017? He did say that at 9:00 right?

Representative democracy is the problem. There will be a gradual shift towards more direct/participatory forms of democracy in the future

Democracy means that the authority exists because the people wants it. It does not mean something or everything needs to be elected

it all went tits up since the councils became a power and a law of there own.. they take all the money from the tax and they decide who gets what

LET'S NOT KID OURSELVES, WE DON'T LIVE IN A DEMOCRACY, WE LIVE IN A PLUTOCRACY, EXAMINE THE EVIDENCE!

The U.K. and the U.S. have much in common. (This isn't just a trite observation. The leadership and citizens of each country should learn from the example of their "special relationship" other.)

I have a question: does PR lead to more extremist governments?

We have never been a democracy we are a Constitutional Monarchy and with the exception under Cromwell, we always have been.

Proportional voting is just as asinine. A smarter answer is what some states do here in the states, you have run-offs. The top two voters run in a run-off election a few weeks later so you always have people in office who get more than 50%. Preferences has been a nightmare in Australia. It's confusing and it brings in little bitty parties not to mention parties making deals for preferences.

Is Channel 4 REALLY a reliable news source?

No, not especially. But absolute democracy would probably be a complete nightmare.

If it was a true democracy why no get us to vote on everything, The MP's always say they work on our behalf, Create a smart phone app, How much easier will it be to find out what the public really want, With checks and balances to make sure we only vote once, we can then vote in days not months, the cost will be dramatically lower, The MP's will know exactly what the people want in every aspect of life, There won't be any guess work, at the moment the situation is far to fluid and MP's think they know what the country wants, No one really knows until you ask us.

Also devolution shafted the English... Where's our parliament putting English issues first? We have to put the whole of the UK first

No, especially not for the Welsh and Scottish.

There is one way to answer that question and that is the answer to this question. When the British people voted to leave the European Union, did the United Kingdom leave on the scheduled deadline? Answer that question, and you will have the answer to the question in the video.

The only problem with democracy is the average voter. I mean people think I could be Prime Minister.

The uk is under one system of government. That is to say no fundamental difference or opinions on how the country should be governed is prompted or introduced to the people. Examples include no islamic teaching or benefits are introduced to the people at young age this is fundamental difference anything so different as this example is never introduced another example no Republicanism is actively promoted or given airtime. This is not because people are not interested in such fundamentally different ideas but it is actively censored or actively distorted in order to silence it.

Compulsory voting and proportional representation like in Belgium is the most democratic. Everyone has had his say and the one elected has the backing of the electorate.

Ask a Scotsman

Have no democracy in uk,

The system is not very equal is it life being a a non voted monarch judge etc, Lord... it is like North Korea, China, Russia, leaders who have been there 10+ years etc and no other person is given a chance a vote to be leader of something or it is like when a movie uses celebrity's not other great actors who can do the same job, so they never get known.

In the UK if Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales all vote one party and England votes another, England automatically wins, the systems rigged no matter what happens, all you can do is hope the English are being their usual selves.

great video :)

Get rid of the house of lords and the monarchy.

Do your lead-in ads have to begin "Holy Sh**"....very poor taste.

NO!

Democracy will win and we will get out. Come on Boris get it done.

re town councils; one feels unwanted, unwelcome n that they make it as difficult n secretive as possible. it puts people off being involved if they dont have family involved or not of the 'correct' breeding. from a west dorset perspective, conservative safe seat

Hmmmm Weimar Germany wasn't particularly stable using the proportional representation model

Brits do not care if they live in democracy, as long as the Queen is around. It is the same as North Korea. The difference on the surface comes from the history; Brits keep on expanding their presence using resources in the US, in which they have gotten retreats, but no defeat, while North Korea was defeated in Korean War, and live in denial since then.

It’s simple, I should be able to vote for any party I want to vote for not just four terrible parties.

When these UK or any of the european nations speak about dmemocracy, I just remember my Indian ancestors whom these brits, portuguese or french killed in order to suppress the freedom movement and irony is today they are being vocal about every nation being a democratic nation and a seccular nation where in still most countries still didnt attain freedom till date and are under british rule if you google it. Jallianwalah bagh is one such incident out of many which happened pre independence in India and brits massacred many Indians sadly and it is in our history

Why do all politicians sound the same

Just ask yourself a simple question, what other country would you rather live in?